The Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation once again welcomed a boatload of visitors to its ancestral home of Yuquot for the 32nd annual Summerfest celebration.

The MV Uchuck III departed from the Gold River dock on Aug. 3 to land for an afternoon at the ancient village site on the southern shore of Nootka Island. Since 1992 Mowachaht/Muchalaht members have returned to Yuquot each summer to camp at the remote site, which served as the First Nation’s main reserve community until it was moved to the Gold River area in the early 1970s.

Two Rottweiler mix puppies have a safe home in Ucluelet after being found down a logging road on Ukee Days weekend, July 26 to July 28.

It is unclear as to why they were on the backroads alone, but a post on social media by their rescuer (who declined to be interviewed) describes the pups as likely being abandoned.

“No collars, no people anywhere to be found, covered in fleas and terrified,” reads the Facebook post on Ucluelet’s public community board.

The puppies were given de flea medication and days after being found, long-term locals took them in.

Provincial officials are warning people to be vigilant of an aggressive streamflow if a blockage on Chilcotin River suddenly breaks, while hoping that nature will correct the massive landslide.

On July 6, a fire broke out near the Hupacasath reserve, prompting more preventive measures to protect First Nations from future fires.

“[The fire] was a big scare considering how close it was to the reserve,” said Jonathan Porter, housing manager of the Hupacasath First Nation. “The fire department showed up in a timely manner and worked out the best it could for an unfortunate situation.”

Ball fans packed the grandstands at Port Alberni’s historic Rec Park Stadium on July 26 to July 28 for a glorious weekend of men’s fastball.

Dubbed “Bringing it Back to the Valley”, the tournament was hosted by the Parksville Red Sox and featured eight teams from Nanaimo, Victoria, Lillooet, Chase, Prince George and California, USA.

“It was a great turnout,” said Tseshaht member Thomas Dick, a first-time tournament organizer and second baseman for the Parksville Red Sox.

The Tseshaht youth dined on traditionally smoked sockeye, drank nettle tea and sang their friendly Paddle Song before landing at the village of Ehthlateese to stay with the Uchucklesaht Tribe. They counted paddle strokes across the Barkley Sound in Nuu-chah-nulth language.

“c̓awaak (one).

ʔaƛa (two).

qacc̓a (three).

muu (four).

suč̓a (five)…”

A Tseshaht First Nation woman is among a group of rugby players that made history at the Paris Olympics.

Shalaya Valenzuela is a member of the Canadian women’s rugby sevens club that captured the silver medal at the Games on Tuesday.

The second-place finish marked Canada’s best Olympic result in the sport. Canada had earned a bronze medal at the 2016 Games in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janiero. That marked the first time the sport was introduced into Olympic competition.

As for this year’s Games, Canada was downed 19-12 by New Zealand in the gold-medal match.

Recent data from the BC Coroners Service is bringing encouraging signs for those fighting the ongoing overdose crisis, with the first half of this year showing the lowest fatalities since the early days of the pandemic.

But amid a complex social problem fueled by an increasingly toxic supply of street drugs, those tasked with finding solutions are still stressing the enormity of the public health emergency that has been in place since April 2016.

Tseshaht First Nation member Shalaya Valenzuela is an Olympic medalist.

Valenzuela is a member of the Canadian women’s rugby sevens squad. The Canadian club captured a silver medal on Tuesday, July 30 at the Paris Olympics, which are ongoing in France.

Canada was downed 19-12 by New Zealand in the gold-medal match.

The silver-medal performance is the best ever Olympic finish for the Canadian women’s team.

Canada had previously won the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio de Janiero Olympics in Brazil.

Provincial officials and health representatives are praising a new Indigenous-led mental health and addictions treatment centre that will be operational by this fall on Quadra Island.

The development seeks to mitigate an overdose crisis that has escalated to claim an average of seven lives a day in British Columbia. Indigenous people are six times more likely to die from drug poisoning than the rest of B.C.’s population, according to a recent report from the Office of the Provincial Health Officer.